Metal Reviews

Not you guys, but we Malaysians.

It's kinda pathetic how the Muslim laws have banned anything un-Godly which includes Metal, and the sad part is, the stupid Christians and Hindus have echoed their distastes on metal.

The latest band to receive the axe is Grave. They've confirmed their gig here in Kuala Lumpur on the 29th of November and it's safe to say Malaysian metalheads including me went on a euphoric riot after hearing the news. Fuck, I have a gig to play on the 29th and the organiser called and said 'Fuck you guys I'm postponing the gig cos I wanna go see Grave!'. We, the band just went 'Fuck yeah!' and were all prepared to start buying tickets. But just as we predicted Grave pulled out and are bypassing us for Singapore. Jesus, Dismember did the same as well 6 months ago!

I'm really getting pissed at how unlucky we metal fans are. And the excuse the government gave was pretty lame. 'The name Grave is very disturbing and the music is unholy, blasphemous and promotes immoral acts. We do not support such art'. Fuck, we have a population of approximately close to a million metalheads and 80% of them are Muslims, but they never give a fuck if it's un-Godly etc.

I love my country a lot but if there's a reason to migrate, it's to have the chance to watch my favourite bands play.

Religion is a poison

This is nothing out of the ordinary. A religious organization did the same thing here with Lamb Of God a few years ago. Even though there isn't really anything religiously offensive in the band's music.

The real question is whether Grave's music and lyrics actually warrant that kind of uproar amongst Christian/Hindu/Muslim groups. Though even if they do, banning them might be a little extreme.

I've never listened to them, so I can't comment.

Well Grave is pretty similar to other Swedish death metal bands of their era, like Dismember and Entombed. The stigma is not because of their lyrical content, but the fact that they're metal, uderground metal. Most underground bands like Grave are brought in by independent organisers, barely without any major sponsorship. The sponsors are mostly the organisers themselves and they later rely on ticket sales to make back their spent savings. And these are the type of gigs that are being banned. But crap bands like As I Lay Dying etc had played here before and the reason they could is because they had big sponsors. Big enough to pull strings among the politicians etc. Well the name 'As I Lay Dying' is pretty morbid, why not ban them? No they won't, cos they've been paid to shut up.

The biggest band to play here so far was Kreator back in 2005, for their Enemy of God release. They even advertised the gig in major papers with 'ENEMY OF GOD' printed pretty largely. But nobody made any noise, why? Because the organiser was big enough to make the pay offs.

That's the situation here at the moment. Religion and corruption, two of the most fucked up things metal is strongly against, and we're having it slapped at our faces over here.

as cartman would have put it:

" ha ha ha ha ha... na na na na na!"





just kidding... censorship sucks cockiwiener in hell, I fucking hate it.

That's terrible, hellraiser... Really sucky.

Uh yeah, it is. Pretty bad.

I understand how you feel. Not too long ago, we had Maiden, Sepultura and Megadeth play here in Bangalore. I attended all the shows and loved everyone of them. But guess what? Bands are banned from playing shows here anymore. Def Leppard was scheduled to come here on Oct 17th, but they cancelled it. Dunno why. Maybe cos of the ban or some other reason. Local bands here are having a hard time cos live shows are banned. Not just that. Rock/metal or any kind of "loud music" has been banned in pubs. You can play "soft music" at a "low volume", but no "loud music." This ban came into force a couple of months back. Stupid cunts.

Well to start if off, or rather in my opinion, India was barely a metal country in the first place. That's why when my friend started introducing me to some Indian bands I was rather shocked! Have you seen Global Metal? I haven't, but my friend told me they started off the topic in India with some weird Bollywood song/dance. But I think the times have changed. Metal is now universal, whether you're in Malaysia, India heck even Kazakhstan! Metal has already conquered these parts already. It's just that the mainstream/mass mentality have yet to accept it. Until they do, people like us will still be depending on Live DVD's and bootlegs cos we're never gonna see the bands live. Consider yourself lucky, Thy Serpent, at least you got to see Maiden, Deth and Sepultura. We only have Kreator and Napalm Death (twice!). And to sicken us further, we're having all this screamo/metalcore bands getting gigs here. Crap.

Religion sucks. I'm glad I live in Canada.

AILD is also a Christian band, which probably gave them "angel wings" in the eyes of most sponsors.

I was going to mention that. But things are even worse in Malta. The only gigs we ever had were Ozzy and Maiden once in the 80s and 90s and Rotting Christ came in 2005. That's it. The problem is we have a very small population, and also we are very fucking holier than thou over here, the fact that we are so damn small that Christianity is prevalent everywhere you go. How Rotting Christ even came here (on Good Friday, no less) is still a mystery,although our faggy government didn't allow them to bring their own instruments.

I guess I should consider myself lucky. Maiden is coming back to Bangalore in Feb. Will be seeing them for a 2nd time. Have already booked my leave. Honestly, I wish I could see Kreator live too. Puzzles me as to why Maiden haven't come over to Malaysia. Just got to know that Def Leppard cancelled their tour to India due to security reasons. Relieved that there is no ban on bands performing live shows.

Yeah man, I was really excited to know that Maiden are playing India again. I really wish I could go for it. But as usual, I'm pretty tight financially. The whole trip to Bangalore would cost me a rough RM 3000, and that's like more than my 1 month's salary!

It's no surprise why Maiden hasn't been here. We're so obscure that bands actually know where Singapore is but they haven't heard of Malaysia. Plus, Singaporean rules are less strict than ours and that's why bands like Dark Funeral, Entombed, Slayer and recently Grave bypassed us for Singapore. Singapore is pretty famous actually, they've had Dream Theater play twice there, Megadeth and Heaven n Hell back to back and so on. We heard rumours that they were trying to bring Maiden down sometime last year. But things fell through when Maiden asked for a 1 million Sing Dollar payout. Or was it USD? I forgot. But even if they do pay that much, tickets would be over the sky high. I don't think I'll be able to afford it.